Tuesday, March 03, 2009

Post Pregnancy Preparations

For the last several months I have been using asthma medicine that is barely keeping my asthma under control. In the US I was using Advair and rarely had to use my fast acting inhaler (maybe once a month if I forgot to take the Advair in the morning). Advair is made of two drugs, one of which is not good for pregnancies - more specifically the baby. Here in Europe Advair has a different name, Seretide. I have been looking forward to being able to go back to this medication as soon as our son is born.

I went to my doctor today to get the prescription now so that I wouldn't have to deal with it in the couple of weeks after he is born. Turns out that one of the drugs in Advair/Seretide shouldn't be used for breastfeeding. He was able to supplement my current preventative inhaler with another (the 1 of 2 drugs in Advair that I can take during breast feeding) and give me more fast acting enhalers. I have been having to use them about 4 times a day, this is much better then the 8-10 I was using without a preventative medicine.

Aggghhh.

On a good note, while I was at the doctor I wanted to discuss birth control options and if I was going to use the pill again get the prescription now. Thinking it would be one less thing to deal with after. He asked me about the Mirena IUD and if I would be interested in that. It hadn't even occurred to me that I may be able to get the Mirena here. I used this in the US and loved it! Well....I loved the second one. The first one I had ended up turning sideways and was headed out a fallopian tube within 3 months of getting it. The 2nd one lasted for 2 years and I have never been so happy with a birth control method. I never had any problems with the type of pill I was taking and I used that for almost 10 years.

A couple of strange things to note...for things like the Mirena and Kevin's Hep A booster, the doctor gave us prescriptions. We then had to go to the pharmacy where they gave me the Mirena (yes I have the actual IUD in my closet right now) and Kevin's Hep A booster. Kevin will go into the doctor today to have them give him the shot. 6 weeks after the birth I will take the Mirena to a gynecologist. It is weird to have it in my hands, in the US the doctor had it.

This might be to much information for some of you....my apologies.

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